The River Kingdoms

Pharast 24, 4708

22

JAN/11

It looks like Phil had some good intuition. As fate would have it, in the morning nearly one hour after sunrise, the Party spotted another group headed on horseback with a wagon approaching the fort. As the group got closer, Oleg said they could be traders or bandits, it was hard to tell.

The group prepared themselves for ambush, and Oleg went on top of his roof pretending to fix it. Jayce and Bolt (Lance’s dog) stayed inside the house with Svetlana, who Oleg was most concerned about.

The group came inside the fort, and yelled to Oleg, “Come down off that roof you oaf, and give us your goods.”

That was enough for the party to spring into action. Kalee jumped into the back of the covered wagon, Lance positioned himself in a sniping position, Zirul pulled out his long sword, Rath positioned himself by the gate to slam the doors behind them to trap them in, and Liana sent her Eidolon in to play.

Shooting one of the horses created some chaos, making the horses buck, and try to escape the area they were trapped in. The wagon Kalee was in became shaky, and the bandit driving the wagon, went inside it for cover against the crossbow fire. He was surprised to see a female there with a monkey on her shoulder.

The wagon being jerked around by the horses first made the bandit fall, then Kalee jumped out of the wagon falling to the ground. The bandit came out of the wagon seeing Kalee on the ground in front of him. Getting ready for the easy kill with his rapier, he was suddenly cut down by her allies. The others were dispatched in cinematic fashion shortly after. The other notable death was where Rath bull-rushed their already wounded leader Happs off a rooftop, and Happs landed on his head, breaking his neck (oh the woe of rolling a 1 on your acrobatic check).

Chaos reigned in this combat, but in the end one of the bandits became trapped in the storage hut where Oleg kept his furs because the horses were blocking the way out. Despite the bandit’s efforts (even trying to dig his way out), the party eventually captured him.

They hung the dead bandits on the wall, and also their captive (who they hung upside down) beside them all. They tried a few torture tactics, but when he didn’t tell them anything relevant, Lance came out to ask him if he wanted something to eat. The befriending worked, as he introduced himself as Pete. He said he was just hired muscle, and was just trying to earn pay. Lance asked if he would work for him, and he agreed (much better than being tortured and killed).